Biographical/Historical Information
George Lewin was born in 1897 in Exin (now Kcynia, Kujawsko–Pomorskie Province, Poland). George Lewin left school in 1914 to volunteer and serve in the German army during World War I. In 1919, attended a “Course for War Participants” and in the same year, began pre-medicine at the Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin. He graduated from Universität Berlin medical school in 1922 with specialties in surgery, gynecology and obstetrics and obtained a license to practice the following year. Lewin worked in a clinic for the next seven years. He married Hildegard Brandes in 1927. In 1930, he established and directed a 40-bed hospital for gynecological surgery in Berlin until 1933, when he was arrested and imprisoned by the authorities, resulting in the loss of his clinic. The German government revoked his medical license in 1938 and restricted his practice to Jewish patients exclusively. He immigrated to the U.S. in the same year. Before Lewin could resume his medical career in the U.S., he had to embark on a re-certification process of several years. From 1942 to 1943, George Lewin was a resident in pathology at Newark Beth Israel Hospital. In 1948, he obtained a license to practice obstetrics and gynecology and began a private practice in New York City. Lewin had a musical life as an oboist and cellist. George Lewin was an oboist with the Jüdische Symphonie Verein of Berlin and the Amateur Symphony Orchestra of New York City. Lewin also played contrabass and cello in chamber ensembles. George Lewin died on May 23, 1990.
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Citation
George Lewin playing the oboe, Leo Baeck Institute, F 38006.